, and his wife kendra, who are in oregon where they have a small farm tawld tipping tree farm. we wish they could be here today, our grandson carter, who is a proud member of the university of oregon marching band, the ducks, who served as an intern for me -- not at government expense, by the way, that was at our expense. and our little dog dakota, who has become sort of a mascot of the united states senate. brian williams when he did a show on a day in the life of senate concluded that program by calling dakota the 101st senator. and, you know, i think he will be missed perhaps more than i am as i leave the senate. in 1964 i came here, i sat up in the gallery, in fact, it was the gallery right up here. and i was 16 years old. and i watched a debate in the united states senate. it was on civil rights. hubert humphrey was leading that debate. and it so inspired me that i thought, you know, someday i'd like to be down on that floor and i would like to debate the great issues of the day and i would like to represent the people of north dakota. and so i went home and wrote out on the back
